Starting a reef tank

"Big Habeeb" wrote in message ups.com...
1. Where should I place the heater? The LFS recommended
dropping it either into the refugium or into hte overflow box...
any opinions on that?

Heater should be located in a place where it will be submerged
properly (check the mark on the heater for minimum water level)
in the water. Most heaters tolerate fully sumberged situation.
Second - it should be located in the place where is a good and
constant water flow to make it work efficiently.
Thrid - it is good to have it concealed from the view, an eye sore :-)

I keep mine in the sump, in the horizontal position.
So mine is fully submerged, it is in very high water flow place
and it is concealed from view. The problem of this location is
that if something happens with the circulation pump moving
water up from the sump to the tank, the tank will stop be heated.

2. Protein skimmer. I have one. It's put together and sitting in my
refugium. A couple things I'm unsure of: the 'waste' tube...where
should that be pointing? The guy at the store said just to stick it
into a soda bottle or something...agree on that?

Waste tube should be pointing to any waste container you imagine.
Soda bottle is good idea, I would use a milk bottle during first
phase of the live rock cycling because your skimmer might
produce a lot of waste during this time.

where should the power pump go for the skimmer? I have the
pump for the overflow in the 'clean' side of the refugium, but was
unsure where to position the pump for the skimmer...Should it be in
the water in the ref.? Does it matter if it's on the dirty or clean
side?

I have no idea what you mean by clean side or dirty side of
the refugium. Refugium is a place inside the reef tank or
outside reef tank where there are no planktonic predators,
so planktonic creatures can develop without predation.
Refugium is then a place where plankton grows and then
water from refugium flows to the main tank commensing
steady feeding process of planktonic creatures to your reef.
Refugium is usually filled with macroalgae because algae
is a perfect substrate for organisms like copepods or
amphipods to live in. Refugium is then lit, preferably in the
opposite lighting phase to the main tank to limit pH drifts
between night and day.

You might be talking about some filter/sump having clean
and dirty side... Skimmer removes dissolved proteins
and other dissolved organic chemicals, so it does not
really matter on which side of the sump.filter it is located.
Note, that sometimes outflow from the skimmer will have
some residue air bubbles, which can migrate through the
circulation pump to the main tank and make water look
cloudy due to the microscopic air bubbles in the water.
For that reason alone it is good to put skimmer in the sump
as early to the water flow as possible to let the water de-gass
freely before it hits the return/circulation pump.